Archives for March 12, 2019

The code designed to enact ethereum’s next system-wide upgrade, Istanbul, may feature the inclusion of a controversial mining algorithm said to allow for broader participation in its network.

Discussed Tuesday during a meeting of project managers working on the world’s second-largest blockchain, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1057, also known as Progressive Proof-of-Work (ProgPoW), has been long debated. On one side are those who believe it will limit large miners from dominating the $655 million annual market for new ether issuance, on the other are those who believe it does not go far enough in leveling access.

Now, with a recent hard fork successfully activated in late February, discussions on ProgPoW appear to be back in full swing. As suggested by Tim Beiko in Tuesday’s call, ProgPoW will be raised as a formal agenda item for discussion among core developers in a call this Friday.

Those assembled on Tuesday’s call said they plan to push for EIP 10557 to be included, should two third-party audits find no technical reasons for a delay.

Beiko said:

“In the worst case, if the audit comes with a huge red flag in it, we can pull that EIP out before Istanbul but assuming that everything goes well, we’ve already done the work … and the audit is just validation afterwards.”

Encouraging this suggestion to be raised to ethereum’s core developers, developer Lane Rettig estimated that the final EIP approval deadline for all Istanbul code changes would be sometime in mid-May.

“That’s something that would have to be brought up in the next all core devs call,” said Rettig.

Two-part audit

However, as the call shows, the results of the audit, aimed at solidifying the measurable benefits of a mining algorithm change, remain to be seen.

As community relations manager of the Ethereum Foundation Hudson Jameson wrote in a developer chatroom, “As far as the audit goes there are two components: benchmarking and examination of how long/efficient a ProgPoW ASIC would be.”

Jameson explained security audits would serve to “make sure it is even worth it to implement ProgPoW of if ASICs can be made super quickly (like less than nine months) and with more speed increase.”

Such comments acknowledge criticisms shared by investors including Dovey Wan and Martina Long who argue the growing number of ASICs on the ethereum blockchain “is largely a non-issue for ethereum,” especially given the planned switch to a new consensus protocol known as proof-of-stake (PoS).

Other community members see the continued scrutiny of ProgPoW as feet-dragging that is holding back an issue that has already achieved consensus.

“The whole point of ProgPoW on [ethereum] is to slow down incoming wave of ASICs and to prepare a more leveled field for any mining device. All [these] delays only give room to ASIC manufacturers to organized a counter-offensive move and prepare for a contentious [hard fork.]”

Ledger Chief Security Officer Charles Guillemet gave a shocking presentation at the MIT Bitcoin Expo this week in which he presented alleged vulnerabilities with the hardware cryptocurrency wallet produced by Trezor – perhaps its top competitor. Trezor argues in a new blog post that all of the attack vectors mentioned are not exploitable remotely.

Ledger Spills the Beans on Alleged Chip Vulnerability

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Trezor particularly took umbrage to the disclosure of an existing chip vulnerability, saying:

“[W]e were surprised by Ledger’s announcement of this issue, especially after being explicitly asked by Ledger not to publicize the issue, due to possible implications for the whole microchip industry, beyond hardware wallets, such as the medical and automotive industries. Since Ledger is in talks with the chip manufacturer (ST) at the moment, we will also refrain from divulging any critical information, save for the fact that this attack vector is also resource-intensive, requiring laboratory-level equipment for manipulations of the microchip as well as deep expertise in the subject.”

Neither they nor Ledger have disclosed much more about the vulnerability outside of the presentation in the video above. All we know is that it’s related to a chip produced by ST Microelectronics, a French hardware component producer. As SatoshiLabs (the makers of Trezor) point out, the vulnerability goes beyond just crypto wallets. They say that regular security measures mitigate against it, but don’t detract from the seriousness of the problem.

After all, even major cryptocurrency exchanges are known to use hardware wallets for cold storage. Even if it requires “laboratory level” equipment and extreme knowledge, the jackpot is big enough that attacks could take place if people learn how to do them.

Bitcoin Hardware Wallets Vulnerable to Supply Chain Attacks

Guillemet noted a number of attack vectors for hardware wallets, one of which is a “supply chain attack.” A supply chain attack involves compromising the device itself, en route to the customer. Ledger’s CSO claims that Trezor is aware they have had counterfeiting of their products.

Guillemet says:

“But why does it matter? It does matter because in this white device, I could insert some kind of backdoor. You can backdoor the device in many different ways.”

The problems that are possible with a counterfeit or tampered-with hardware wallet are myriad. The attacker can create a pre-seeded wallet, for example.

Trezor says they’ve handled this problem as much as possible. There are resellers and other markets to acquire hardware wallets, after all. It doesn’t matter what you do to try to verify the genuineness of a hardware wallet – it can still be faked. They point to an example where a Ledger wallet was compromised in just this way.

The problem will exist until such a time that people somehow make their own hardware wallets at home. Even then, as Trezor says:

“No hardware is unhackable, and depending on what your security model is, there are tools which you can use to mitigate threats. […] Besides, if one has sufficient capital, time, and resources, no hardware barriers will stand against their attacks.”

All hardware wallets are subject to some form of physical attack. However, most crypto users don’t perceive physical threats as the primary reason they might lose their funds. The attacks outlined by Ledger are, in reality, mostly theoretical. They largely require physical access to the device. They’re mitigated by things like passphrases.

When leaked pictures of Samsung’s latest smartphone went viral, the crypto sphere lost its mind over a singular feature: a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.

Samsung would quickly deny rumors that the S10 contained a baked-in hardware wallet. Well, the wallet definitely exists. It’s just missing a few features you might expect of a crypto wallet. Specifically, it doesn’t support bitcoin — only ether and ERC20 tokens — which would be akin to your broker at Charles Schwab or Fidelity telling you that your 401(k) lets you invest in silver, copper and other metals but not gold.

The Wallet

I bought my S10 yesterday and downloaded the wallet first thing this morning from Samsung’s Galaxy Store (interestingly, it’s not available on the Google Play Store). Upon setting up the wallet, the app asks for permissions, like access to your phone’s calling function, storage, camera and body sensors, and it asks you to sign in with either a Samsung or Google account.

I tried to take screenshots of the process, but when you try this, an error message reads: “Can’t take screenshots due to security policy.” So there’s a plus-one for mindful security practice even if the app’s asking for access to your phone leaves you wary.

Setting up the wallet is pretty standard procedure. You can either import an existing wallet using your seed phrase or create a new one. If creating a new one, you’ll be asked to enter a 6-digit PIN, and after you confirm this PIN, you’ll be given a 12-word seed phrase (aka recovery phrase or mnemonic phrase).

The device will warn you to store the phrase on another device (or, if you’re being really security minded, offline entirely), adding that if you lose it, then your wallet will be lost to the blockchain abyss if you need to recover it for whatver reason (instances where you might need to recover your wallet: your phone gets broken, your phone gets stolen or Thanos secures all the Infinity Stones). The app also assures you that Samsung has no access to your wallet, but that anyone with your seed phrase does.

After you promise that you’ve written down the seed phrase safely like an obedient little enthusiast, like any responsible wallet, it will randomly select three of these words (numbered 1–12) for you to regurgitate to the app to prove that you didn’t ignore the most important step in setting up a wallet.

Bitcoin When?

Once you’ve done this, your wallet is set up and you can start sending and receiving ether and ERC20 tokens.

Yep, just Ethereum stuff: no bitcoin. The wallet comes with innate support for ether, TrueUSD, Basic Attention Token, Augur’s REP, Chainlink, the Paxos Standard, Maker, USD Coin, BNB and ZRX, among others. You can also add a “custom token” like you can for other Ethereum wallet services such as MyCrypto and MyEtherWallet: this means that you can tell the wallet to recognize any ERC20 token by entering its token contract address, its name, its symbol (ticker) and its decimals.

It also comes with intrinsic support for two dApps: the Enjin Coin wallet, the eponymous cryptocurrency for Korean gaming company Enjin; and the notorious CryptoKitties. Enjin has been touted as a token platform that will revolutionize in-game purchases and ownership (what amounts to tokenizing cosmetics, items and other content). CryptoKitties, depending on who you ask, is either a really cute crypto trend or the virtual reincarnation of Beanie Babies with even more irrational buyer’s mania. It made headlines in 2017 when the dApp clogged up the Ethereum network.

According to BREAKERMAG’s coverage of the wallet, COSMEE, a cosmetic token that rewards users for things like reviews of beauty products, is also supported. The app reportedly features the CoinDuck payment portal for point-of-sale and merchant payments, as well.

Samsung has given no indication as to why it chose to support only Ethereum out of the gate, and it has also given no promise or timeline for integrating bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in the future.

Bitcoin continues to coil tightly within its range-bound market as the bulls and bears fight it out to see which is most dominant. On the lower time frames (TF), bitcoin is managing to find support:

Figure 1: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Low TF Support

The zone outlined by the green line in Figure 1 represents local support that has kept the market afloat for the last week and a half. Late last night, we saw another test of this support level has failed to break it thus far. On a macro level, we are in a kind of no-man’s-land, following the bounce off macro support in the mid $3,000s:

Figure 2: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Macro Support Respected

The blue zone outlined above shows the market respecting the support zone following the high volume rejection from the high established in the low $4,000s. Since we managed to establish support on the low TF and high TF market structures, it seems logical that the next move will be a test of supply in the red-dotted zone shown above. If we zoom out even further to the weekly candles, we can see clearly that this low TF range-bound market is nothing more than a weekly resistance test in an attempt to reclaim macro support:

Figure 3: BTC-USD, Weekly Candles, Weekly Resistance Test

Figure 3 shows a test of the weekly resistance level. So far, we have seen a few tests of the area but nothing that has managed to close above the level. If we can manage to get a weekly close above the level shown above, that would be a very strong, bullish statement to make in the current market structure.

So far, we have been rejected twice, but if we manage to close a weekly candle above the resistance level, this could be a great sign of bearish exhaustion considering that level has been heavily shorted for the last few months. If we can close above the current high that’s been established in the $3,900s, that would be bullish on all TFs down to the hourly candles.

However, if this level gets rejected, it would most likely mean a revisit to the lows in the low $3,000 zone. For now, things are fairly bullish as we maintain support on lower and macro TFs. Look out for a close above the weekly resistance level, as this would indicate a change of character in the market structure.

Summary

Bitcoin managed to establish support with its lower TF range-bound market. This support coincided with a macro support level on the daily candles as well.

We are currently in between major support and resistance levels, so the market is drifting up and down as the bulls and bears battle it out.

Macro resistance is being tested for a third time. If we manage to close a weekly candle above this level, that would likely mean bearish exhaustion is failing to suppress the market demand. Look for a close above this level, as this would represent a change in market structure.

Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Inc related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Inc and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Tron prices up 2.5 percent but out of the top 10ChainLink and Tron partnership rumors may support pricesTransaction volumes drop, averages 6.9 million against 37 million of Feb 24Rumors are rife that Tron and ChainLink are on the verge of collaboration. If that is the case, Tron (TRX) stands to benefit as demand help lift valuation from current pits. The coin is up 2.5 percent from last week’s low but could print above 2.5 cents by end week.Tron Price AnalysisFundamentalsEthereum introduced smart contracts. Smart contracts depend on the underlying blockchain for security and immutability. As an autonomous piece of code and highly reliable when executing the pre-programmed set of conditions, it will be useful in the real world with fluctuating variables if there is a connection, an oracle that feeds and updates it will real-time data. That is what ChainLink does, and while acting as a gap between on-chain and off-chain infrastructures, they enable smart contracts like Tron’s access verifiable APIs, real-time data fees or payments while remaining decentralized without a single point of failure or downtime.It is this agent, an oracle that Tron-based smart contracts will draw their source from if this spreading rumor is indeed true. While unconfirmed by the Tron Foundation or ChainLink, this “collaboration” will remain as it is—conjecture.Still unconfirmed but possible @Tronfoundation + @chainlink partnership being announced tomorrow. This email was supposedly sent by the $TRX foundation.#Chainlink can trigger #SmartContracts on any #Blockchain.@justinsuntron$LINK#TRONpic.twitter.com/Zt2MNqpgSO— LINK News Oracle (@LINKNewsOracle) March 12, 2019Nonetheless, this is good news and days after announcing a liquidity creating partnership with Tether, a connection that would see smart contracts activate based on real-time signals will make the network and by extension TRX more desirable for businesses. Already, Tron dApps are drawing more volumes surpassing those of Ethereum and EOS cementing the Foundation’s bottom line.Candlestick ArrangementEven so, TRX is down to 11th in the market cap ranking after two weeks of dismal performance. TRX is down 2.5 percent from last week and relatively stable in the previous day. Because of this and unexpected demand in lower time frames, our last TRX/USD trade plan is valid.Therefore, bulls are in control although the lack of confirmation and TRX close above 2.5 cents should be a worry. Our confidence relies on the price action of the past two days. Visibly, TRX prices are printing higher highs, away from the lower BB meaning momentum is building up.However, before we recommend longs, prices must break and close above 2.5 cents, confirming the three-bar-bull reversal pattern of Mar3-5.Technical IndicatorsAs mentioned above, a single bull bar thrusting prices above 2.5 cents would usher in TRX demand that would likely drive prices towards 3.1 cents. For that to print out, volumes must exceed 6.9 million average and 13 million of Mar 4.

The project has partnered with the gaming blockchain startup Forte to create a $100 million fund to support game developers, the companies announced on Tuesday.

According to a report in the Verge, all of the money will come from Ripple and Forte will manage the fund, which aims to accelerate mainstream adoption of blockchain technology in gaming.

Forte’s tech leverages “open-source solutions designed in collaboration with Ripple,” the announcement says. These solutions include the open-source Interledger Protocol, the Codius platform (created for smart contracts but described here as a “container-based hosting solution”) and the use of the cryptocurrency XRP for settlements.

“Blockchain technology has the potential to improve game designs and help developers run better and more successful game economies, but for many developers it’s difficult to develop and deploy,” the companies’ press release says. “Forte’s platform makes it easy for developers to apply blockchain technology to their games, increasing engagement and monetization with their players.”

The fund is primarily targeting “game developers operating live game economies with over 50,000 daily active users,” the release adds.

“We are thrilled to partner with such a world-class team of game industry veterans,” Ethan Beard, senior vice president of Xpring, said in a statement, referring to Forte’s founding team from such gaming companies as Kabam, Unity, and GarageGames.

“Both Forte and Ripple have a shared belief that blockchain technology will have a massive impact on games, and that providing tools that are easy-to-use, chain agnostic and interoperable is a necessary step in driving scale consumer adoption,” he added.

Founded in February 2019, San-Francisco-based Forte was supported by such investors as a16z crypto, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Canaan Partners, Coinbase Ventures, 1confirmation, and others, the announcement says.

“Blockchain technologies’ key innovations unlock vast potential for nearly all forms of digital interaction. Gaming is a $140 billion global industry driven predominantly by digital micro-transaction economies, which we believe will benefit immensely from the integrity and resilience of blockchain technology,” Brett Seyler, chief platform officer at Forte, said in a statement. “The industry needs solutions that can support these economies at scale with cross-chain interoperability.”

The Russian central bank seeks to impose new regulations on cryptocurrency. The central bank wants unqualified investors to be limited in how much cryptocurrency they can purchase. RCB reports that they will also institute an information-sharing system between crypto exchanges to ensure that no one goes over their limit.

Russia Failed to Regulate Forex – Will Crypto be Any Different?

A few years back, the Russian central bank failed to implement similar regulations on forex markets. They wanted to limit the trading of foreign currencies to qualified investors, but the Russian parliament eventually decided against that.

The bank seems to follow a pattern of aiming high in hopes of hitting something reasonable. In the forex regulation debacle, they also wanted to ban all broker websites which didn’t have licensure in the Russian Federation.

Which brings us to the next point: cryptocurrencies aren’t obedient to borders. The Internet of Money and the Internet of Information offer users the freedom to go anywhere without leaving their home.

How Russian Bitcoin Investors Might Respond

“Unqualified investors,” or most people who have an interest in crypto, will have to find ways around this if they plan to acquire significant amounts of crypto. Fortunately, on a global scale, there are thousands of exchanges to choose from, many with much better reputations than virtually any Russian Bitcoin exchange.

The most notable exchange from Russia, after all, was BTC-E. While alleged scam exchange WEX has a New Zealand domain, their latest owner is based in Ukraine. Therefore, the most likely case is that Russian cryptonaughts will use VPNs (if necessary) to access foreign exchanges.

The recent surge of stablecoins enables a reasonable trading experience, on par with having a bank-integrated trading account. The regulations would seem to mainly apply to companies like Coinbase, which doesn’t currently operate in Russia. Coinbase and other major outfits that want to do business in Russia will have to comply with these new demands.

However, actually opening up shop in Russia may be difficult for companies like Coinbase, as the new digital assets law – still in draft phases – seems to favor existing Russian stock exchanges and banks.

Ripple price recoverSWIFT is dominant, moves $300 billion a dayParticipation levels low, likely to rise as XRP prices edge higher.SWIFT partnership with Ripple in an arrangement that incorporates xRapid will cause XRP prices to explode. All the same, SWIFT is confident that they are dominant and are not willing to join forces citing numbers. Meanwhile, Ripple (XRP) prices are edging higher and could close above 34 cents in days ahead.Ripple Price AnalysisFundamentalsIn a proof of concept, SWIFT did link their GPI Link with R3’s Corda Settler—owned in part by SBI Group, the chief agitator for Ripple and XRP. It was understandable that many Ripple supporters were excited that SWIFT was finally ready to fuse with the XRP Ledger and even use XRP for their cross-border service.No doubt, benefits will flow in thick and fast if they do especially now that Ripple through xRapid has proven that their solutions are superior, cost-cutting and above all fast. It‘s a feature that we get in all DLT projects and something that SWIFT’s Lisa O’Connor, the MD, is not worried about as “numbers speak for themselves.”In an interview with the popular news churning CNBC’s Crypto Trader, the executive oozed confidence, conveying a subtle message that Ripple has a long way to go before being a primary challenger for the dominant network.“I would just say that I think the numbers speak for themselves, in that the old days of it taking several days to make a payment cross-border don’t exist anymore. And outside of that, Swift has something called GPI, the Global Payments Innovation. I would say the numbers speak for themselves in that $300 billion a day is done across the Swift network.”Candlestick ArrangementsLike it has been with XRP in the last couple of weeks, prices are stagnant. Trading within a tight 4 cents range, the failure of bears to drive prices below 30 cents, our sell trigger and support line is bullish for the third most valuable coin.Now that prices are in range mode, trading inside Jan 30 high low as participation levels drop, all we expect is a high-volume close above 34 cents. Not only will it catalyze participation but will trigger renewed in XRP as prices gain momentum as prices surge towards 40 cents.On the other hand, any drop below 30 cents nullifies our Ripple (XRP) trade plan.Technical IndicatorsVolumes are thin, and despite increasing demand in lower time frames, we need proof of XRP demand. That means a satisfactory close above 34 cents complete with volumes exceeding 14 million and 61 million of Feb 24.

A cryptocurrency had bulls for breakfast this Tuesday, with steroids as a topping.

Crypto.com Chain, a blockchain project which reportedly enables instant crypto transactions, saw its native token CRO jump as much as 168 percent today. The crazy upsurge pushed the project’s market valuation from a modest $72-75 million range to above $200 million. As of 1300 GMT, CRO was trading at $0.052, down 13.416 percent from its intraday high.

Crypto.com chain (CRO) 7-day price chart| SOURCE: Coinmarketcap.com

The CRO volume posted circa $682 million worth of trades, quoted the most against bitcoin, South Korean Won, and ether, per the 24-hour adjusted timeframe. New York-based crypto exchange Bittrex contributed the maximum to the said daily volume. The exchange, albeit not entirely regulated, claims that it complies with the existing US laws. It also has a strong presence in Malta, a loosely regulated region for crypto companies. There is a possibility that Bittrex’s US customers didn’t contribute much to the CRO’s doubtful rally.

The other exchange that hosted almost 47% of the overall CRO trades today was GOPAX. The South Korean trading platform is among the few that passed a self-regulatory test, conducted per the Korean Financial Services Commission’s (FSC) guidelines last year. There is an unlikeliness of volume manipulation.

Exchange Listing and Partnership

Crypto.com recently went on to an exchange listing spree. Following Bittrex, the project announced today that Indodax would start offering CRO-enabled trading pairs on its platform from March 14. In the same announcement, Crypto.com Chain said that it was partnering with an Indonesia-based dropship e-commerce company Yoshugi Media Group. The partnership eyes local adoption for CRO as the token replaces costly payment options with its blockchain-enabled settlement service.

“Indonesia is a vibrant market with over 260 million people. We look forward to developing closer ties with both Indodax and the Yoshugi Media Group as we seek to serve our customers in the rapidly growing ASEAN market. We see Crypto.com Pay driving the adoption of cryptocurrency as a mode of payment and CRO token as the ultimate way to settle cross-currency payments instantly and inexpensively,” – said Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Crypto.com.

Certik Verification

Smart contract audit firm Certik also provided a favorable review to Crypto.com’s CRO, stating that the asset was secure to be listed on crypto exchanges. The firm also added that its certification would make it easier for CRO to get listed on its partner exchanges, which includes names like Binance and Waves. Here’s the complete list:

Fake or Genuine?

From the look of it, CRO had every reason to rise given the bombardment of positive developments this Tuesday. While the rally is still looking hyped, there is a possibility that CRO would find decent support in a near-term scenario – at least above its original pumping point.